Acer Inc saw sales drop 37 per cent for the first quarter, blaming the general sluggishness of the PC sector.

The Taiwanese giant's revenue for the three months ended March 31 2001 was T$6.51 billion ($197 million), compared to T$29.07 billion for the same period the previous year, a company representative told Reuters.

March was especially disappointing, with sales of T$6.51 billion, almost half of the T$12.78 billion the company saw in March 2000.

Even more alarming, last month's sales were slightly lower than those of February 2001, when Acer revenue totalled T$6.65 billion.

"There's no significant recovery on the overall PC environment," the representative, who chose not to reveal their name, told Reuters. "But we expect the situation to improve in the second quarter," she added.

In November Acer cut 500 staff in Taiwan, followed by its parent company Acer Group announcing plans to split the company in two - one part to manufacture its own brand PCs and the other to deal with Acer's contract manufacturing business. ®

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